Abacist

The current small bore target rifle in vogue is the Swiss made Bleiker which is much more expensive than the traditional Anschutz, Walther and Feinwerkbau

You don't say what aperture your 400mm lens is but the 2X converter will halve the aperture meaning that the lens will half as quick because of the reduction in light and the autofocus will not work quickly enough. In my view 2X converters are only any good for fast prime lenses so a F1.8 50mm lens becomes an f2.6 100mm lens which is useable. Its a relatively cheap thing to do but pretty useless for telephoto lenses. Of course the other thing is that the you will not freeze the motion of the bird and the photo will be blurred because you can't get a high enough shutter speed with a small aperture. An 800mm lens is going to cost some serious money with a decent fast aperture. The cheapest and best solution would be getting closer with a hide if you can do it!

Have the NSRA and NRA been asked to promote this e-petition?

Battle of the Bulge

It irritates me when the Scots and Welsh can determine their own destiny to a large extent through their own government assemblies and yet the ******* still vote as MP's in our parliament about what goes on in England. They should have the decency to withdraw or abstain on matters affecting England! Frankly I'd prefer to keep the Union and abolish the separate assemblies as they just exacerbate the postcode lottery on so many things in life! Proud to be English but also proud to be British and a citizen of the United Kingdom!

The winner had to score 23 or more to win a car outright!

As a retired accountant I have only just seen this thread. How wonderful that we have someone that has now formed their own company and we have no idea what the business is, his or her personal circumstances, finances, future plans, family, dependants etc. Is a company suitable or would he be better as a sole trader or partnership or an LLP as has been mentioned? Taxation has only been touched upon in the most limited way. As soon as any finance is required in terms of overdraft, loan or whatever the bank will not be happy unless a reputable accountant is involved who will be needed to put forward sensible cash flow forecasts and projections for the business. LLP and Company accounts are required to be prepared in accordance with prescribed legal formats and in accordance with UK GAP (General Accounting Principles). These are normally beyond someone not trained in their preparation. Fines are readily available for late submission and errors in accounts and the same applies for late VAT returns and tax returns. Using an accountant should help steer you through this veritable minefield and he should encourage you to be self sufficient as far as possible in terms of keeping books, doing VAT returns etc. A good accountant won't want you to be a disorganised mess as it will cost a fortune to put it right and you won't be happy to pay his bill to do it. As to accountants they are many and varied. There is no requirement to have a qualification to call yourself an accountant so there are some unqualified people about some of whom are fine but some are not. Chartered Accountants have been mentioned which are probably the best. Talk to your local suppliers, lawyer, bank staff for suggestions as to a reputable one in your area. Get quotes from a few and use their free hour to find one that suits and that you can get on with. Personal recommendations from people you trust are best. If you pick a "dodgy" accountant so far as HMRC is concerned then expect to be investigated at some time - someone reputable will ease your life with HMRC as they should ensure that everything is done properly and accounted for. As to charges these vary widely. A one man band that you can never speak to because he is too busy and never gets anything done for you may not turn out to be as cheap as he seems. A larger firm with a partner, manager, senior and assistants will provide more support. Even larger firms will be departmentalised for small businesses, corporates like companies, LLP's, firms requiring an audit and with separate departments for tax etc. They will probably have specialists for VAT, Financial Services, Insolvency, provide bureau payroll services, tax investigations etc. You will soon get to to know that you don't have to speak to the top man for every query. Costs reflect the time and complexity of your work so a small business will cost less than a large one but if you make it complex then that can add to cost. Provide everything at once to do the job so that he doesn't keep having to pick up and put down the work because he gets stuck due to missing information which adds to his time and costs. I was a partner in a large regional firm with roughly 50 partners and 400 staff spread over 8 offices. Compared to equivalent local solicitors we were considerably cheaper! Your accountant will tell you when you need a solicitor but use your accountant to set up companies, LLP's etc if you don't know what you are doing. Once you trade through a company the money in it is no longer yours and you can't just take money out at will to pay the housekeeping and spending money. The accountant will delegate the work to be done down to appropriate staff but it will be checked to keep it cost effective. Get quotes and be sure to comply with the rules of the quote. If the accountants expect properly balanced, mathematically accurate books reconciled to the bank account and VAT returns etc then if you don't do that he will charge more to sort it out because it will take much more time to do. The accountant may well suggest that you have a bookkeeper to do the bookkeeping on a part time basis as you should concentrate on what you are best at which is your business generating sales, providing services or whatever it is that you do. As I'm retired I regard myself as out of date on tax and costs but hope that the principles expressed above will be useful. An accountant owes a duty of care to his client and as such has to know his client inside out to do his best for his client so initial questioning of you by your accountant should be thorough. It is important. He is also obliged to go through Money Laundering procedures with you just like when you open a bank account etc which is a necessary evil I'm afraid in trying to find crooks, terrorists and drug dealers etc.

You say that your coach tells you if you are behind but does he tell you why? Quite often you miss because of faults in technique and a good coach should be spotting this and telling you how to correct your faults. Saying you're behind is not enough!

Monster Raving Loonies sound more reasonable compared to the rest every year!

After such a remarkable quality build one has to ask "Whatevernext"?

Pin Sharp - Very well done - Superb!

If you look at the CPSA fixtures list you will see that there are some registered shoots during the week, in both summer and in winter!

Solar farms seem to be the most profitable way to use poor ground and will certainly earn more revenue than a shooting ground - mores the pity! Perhaps this is what the farmer really has in mind? I had a couple of lessons at Wylye with Rob Eaton and managed to get to their last registered shoot which had a massive attendance which showed how much respect Ian and his wife had in running a great shoot with great food!

I am also with Geen Flag and have used them twice in the last month. Both times they were with me well within the hour. Much cheaper than the others and they use local garages with local knowledge. Haven't been able to fault them yet.

You have had the benefit of advice in a post from a Police Officer - Why can you not accept that? It is certainly more right than your offering above! If you are obstructive and cause suspicion then you can expect to be kept away from your guns and locked in the back of a police car until an armed response unit comes to inspect them, ensure they are safe and are lawfully in your possession; a process that could inconvenience you for some considerable time! Needless to say you should not have a loaded gun in a public place as it is an offence!

Contact Dave Williams about IR 35 and Julie Towers about the VAT at this firm - http://www.francisclark.co.uk They are both specialists in these two particular areas of tax.

Early days yet - there is the whole weekend yet for both higher scores and errors to be corrected! I've heard that there is already a 110 score in.

I am a target shooter living just west of Exeter. What clubs have you been to? Sounds to me as if you ought to be buying your Ruger first. You can buy a custom Ruger already worked on new or secondhand and these are fine for LSR target shooting indoors at 20 yards or outdoors at 25 metres and 50 metres and for sport competitions on turning targets. There is a shop in Ilfracombe that does worked on Rugers. Never heard of a CZ being used for serious prone target shooting! As for using your own gun at a club that should not be a problem and if it is, clubs all have club guns for members to use. I can give you contact details at Fonthill Rifle & Pistol club which can help you with both prone and LSR shooting. Their range is underneath the Pyramids swimming pool in Exeter and Monday nights at 7pm and later is the night for pistol and LSR.

Your profile gives no indication of where you are in the country so that limits the advice that people can give as to where you can go and shoot

Good shout!

Would you believe that today my Mum, now 87, gave me my Dad's RAF log book that records his training and every flight that he ever made with aircraft type, number, hours and departure and destination bases. He was in Africa and the Middle East for his war and as a ferry pilot flew a large assortment of aircraft from Spitfires, Hurricanes up to Ansons, Beaufighters, Wellingtons, Baltimores etc. He continued after the war and converted to Meteor jet fighters and flew out of RAF Colerne near Bath. He had lots of stories like a squadron of new spitfires built from crates in Africa having to belly land as the undercarriages did not work; landing in the desert as they all had the runs from the food the night before; getting carpeted for belly landing a Spit without feathering the prop first which meant the engine had to have a rebuild because it jarred to a stop; getting off the hard sand track as tail end charlie following all the other planes behind a jeep after landing and tipping a Maurauder on its nose in the desert; going on the booze run to Cyprus to buy 3 barrels of Cypriot brandy, the large barrel for the officers, the medium one for the NCO's and the small one for the other ranks; drunken airmen trying to climb up and down the ridge tents that they slept in in the desert and lots of photos of playing cricket in the desert. He had a wonderful way of making light of it all yet years later he went through a faze of not being able to fly on holiday because he was terrified of the fear of burning in a plane crash as he had seen it happen during the war.

In the USA the NRA is extremely powerful both in terms of numbers but also, more importantly in terms of money and they are united. Unfortunately shooters in the UK are split over over a dozen or so organisations. If we were united we would carry more political clout but there is too much apathy. For those of you too young to know this, Sebastian Coe, now Lord Coe and recently responsible for the London Olympics was the President of the National Pistol Association up until the Dunblane massacre when he promptly resigned and deserted us as it was not politically wise for him to remain in post. Sadly I doubt if the pistol ban will ever be repealed but pistol shooting is still very possible via black powder, long barreled revolvers and .22 long arm free pistols. The best that could be achieved in the circumstances and thanks mostly to the NSRA who took the test case on the long arm pistol to the High Court and won as it failed the true definition of a pistol due to its length with long barrel and balance rods. You can also own short or semi-auto pistols abroad and shoot them overseas in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and further afield such as Olympic competitors had to do in Switzerland in the run up to the London Olympics.

Doing this with bicarbonate of soda is better than washing up liquid!

We could do with some sensible changes in road law. In Canada one is legally allowed to undertake. Also one is allowed to turn left at traffic lights that are red provided that you stop first, check that its safe and then proceed. Of course over there it means turning right at a red traffic light as they drive on the right but for us it would be an allowed left turn on a red light. Both are excellent methods of improving safety and reducing congestion.

This is unfortunately untrue as I am regularly towing a trailer and so limited to 60mph and not allowed in the outside lane and yet come across middle lane hoggers doing well under 60mph with no excuse not to be in the inside lane - Not fit to be on the road IMHO!